Fifty shades of Jesus

What color was Jesus? That’s an easy question to answer. All you have to do is figure out what color his father God is.

*sigh*

I believe sane people everywhere can agree that the best answer to the question of what color Jesus was is … “Yes.”

Unless you’re online. Then the best answer is the song “Some Children See Him,” off the album James Taylor at Christmas. (The whole album is awesome; my wife Catherine and I have a ridiculously huge collection of Christmas music, and James’s is one of the two or three we play most often. I’m not a big fan of attaching pictures to songs, but … YouTube-wise, this is all I could find…):

As to the question, “What color is Santa Claus? Speaking personally, I can only say that included amongst the Christmas decorations at my house are two Santa figurines, each about a foot high. We bought them some twenty years ago. Here’s one of them:

Whoa. I see Santa’s belt needs gluing. Yikes! That’s just … wrong.

Anyway, here’s our other Santa:

So, as you see, on this issue, too, I vote “Yes.”

I hope all of you are having the very best Christmas/Holiday season ever.

On the one hand, Saint Nicholas was an actual historical person, who was from Anatolia, and had, like every other person on earth, only one set of physical characteristics. Not Anglo, as Santa is usually depicted, but not black, either. On the other hand, Claymation portrayed Santa as a friggin elf and no one complained. If people all over America don’t have any problem depicting the man as a supernatural member of a different SPECIES than human, I think they should be able to deal with him being black sometimes.

Amy Butler

Thank You–Some Children See Him–I have been trying to remember the name of that song for DAYS!!!

Diane Bourg

FYI, “Some Children See Him” was written by Alfred Burt. And my favorite version is by George Winston.

I was just thinking: I think that album is a lot older than I tend to think it is. It sounds so fresh every year that I tend to forget that I think I’ve had it for, like, THIRTY YEARS. What a freakish thought. But I swear I bought the album in, like, 1982–and then bought the CD later. But I think it’s that old. Yikes.

Diane Bourg

Yup. We were living in N. Calif. at the time, and a friend of a friend worked at Tower records and brought “Autumn” to a housewarming party that we attended back around 1980. So we have both Autumn, December, and Winter Solstice on LP, as well as CD.

L L Bennett

Did Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore describe Santa as an elf?

lymis

Hey, the definitive description of Santa, Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” calls him “a right jolly old elf.”

Even if that’s metaphor, I can’t think of any other historical bishops with flying reindeer. That’s certainly a sign of SOMETHING going on.

Michele N. Morgan

Well, when going through the Mediterranean, you have a wide blend of shades that could mix with other blends because various peoples do come through. The landscape does change.

You can be fairly dark to fairly fair skinned and still be from the same area.

All the same, certain people are more sympathetic to imaginary creatures than they are to people who have funny colors in their skin.

Jill

Yupper. Just re-watched ‘Twas cartoon for the zillionth time last night. “He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.”

Robert McHenry

Hi. As a contrarian, I believe sane people everywhere can agree that the best answer to the question of what color Jesus was is … “Jewish”.

I am always surprised at how many “christians” forget that Jesus was Jewish.

Robert McHenry

You know what I completely copped out… John your song is a nice song… but side stepping the issue of JC nationality, race, etc… plays into the hands of those that want to continue to “white wash” history.

SInce you all accept that JC was a real person that lived and died (and rose again)… in the first century AD… then he was a Middle Eastern, Jew. Not some Nordic god created on the template of Apollo.

Historically, Christians have used their bible and their belief system to say how superior they are over the “Other”… this Other has changed through time… Irish, Italians and Greeks have all been the other in this country and the exact same words “drunks, lazy, stupid, primitive, criminal, oversexed” were used at them as were used on african american, mexicans, hispanics.

By not challenging the white washing of JC… we allow the “other” to exist. If christians can recognize and accept the “fact” that their savior looks like a palestinian and was a jew… then maybe they can begin to accept all the other “others”…

and isn’t this what JC meant when he said… “love thy neighbor as yourself.”

Seems lots of “christians” forget the words of Jesus as they bow to a God they think looks and acts just like they do.